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Writer's pictureBrooke Straiton

Welcome to FAMILY TRAILS & TALES travel blog

Start here to learn about our family and find out more about our travels.


Meet the Straiton Family

Dad - Dave, a fence foreman who likes sweet drinks, spicy food and struggles to float in water

Mom - Brooke, photographer and romance writer, ring leader and perpetual planner of adventures

(Connor the oldest is now in California with his own family adventures)

David - middle child, pessimist and snark-bringer, lover of science and anything gaming related

Lincoln - the youngest, karate moves are his thing, doesn't sit still for anyone or anything


We're a typical middle class family from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.


The family striking a pose on a dried up lake bed in Death Valley National Park

Our home base is close to Sesame Place, Philadelphia, NJ Beaches, New York City and so many more amazing travel destinations, but we still choose to broaden our horizons and travel as much as possible.


Brooke and Dave at Parx Casino


Why we travel...


Dave and I have been traveling ever since we met and discovered we loved going on adventures together. Most of our beginning trips were local or discount deals we found on Groupon or Living Social. It wasn't until our honeymoon that we saved up and splurged on our first trip to Europe.


Even after the kids were born we decided that birthdays and holiday presents shouldn't be filled with things, but were better served with building memories. I was lucky to have a ton of memories from my own childhood of my parents taking my sister and I on extended camping trips to places like Niagara Falls, Colonial Williamsburg, and Plymouth Plantation. I'm sure I complained about it the whole time, but now I look back and truly value the wealth of knowledge and memories I got to build as a child. And because of that, Dave and I decided to continue that with our own children.


Dad and toddler playing in the ocean
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina


Places we've been...

I'm including places Dave and I have traveled as a couple as well as the locations we've been with one or more of the kids. My goal is to eventually link this list out to individual posts with details on those trips, but we're talking about over 10 years of traveling.


As of 2023, we've traveled to:

Paris, France

Versailles, France

London, United Kingdom

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom



Puerto Rico

US Virgin Islands

Miami, Florida

Boston, Massachusetts

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

New York, NY

Brooklyn, NY

Mammoth Cave, KY

Nashville, TN


Mammoth Cave, Kentucky


West Dover, Vermont

Outer Banks, NC

Las Vegas, NV + Hoover Dam

Sedona, AZ

Death Valley, CA

Los Angeles, CA

Grand Canyon, AZ

Acadia National Park/ Bar Harbor, Maine


Kids running along rocks in Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park in Maine

Williamsburg, VA

Myrtle Beach, SC

Orlando, FL

Cape Canaveral, FL

Ocean City, MD

Assateague Island, MD

Cape May, NJ (and many of the other NJ beaches)

Gettysburg, PA

Hershey, PA

Philadelphia, PA

Princeton, NJ

New Orleans, LA


Roanoke, North Carolina near Outer Banks


Home Base: Bucks County, Pennsylvania - Yardley, Newtown, Doylestown, Washington Crossing, New Hope and more!


Upcoming trips include Chicago, San Francisco, a cruise on Virgin Cruises, and Scotland!


Our trip mentality...

The one thing I have truly learned about travel is that you can't go into it with too many expectations. If you have a solid mental picture of what you expect to experience, especially when traveling with children, you are going to end up frustrated and fighting the whole time. Instead, I remind the entire family that we're going on a vacation knowing that we're going to see and do something new. Not all of it will be fantastic, but it will be a memory one way or another! You just have to be willing to try new things to see if you like them!

Stay tuned for our upcoming Youtube channel and subscribe to our newsletter below.

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